Monroe County's prime location puts it in thick of things during Prohibition

By Suzanne NOLAN Wisler / For The Monroe News

Monday

May 28, 2018 at 4:00 PM

While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was not ratified until Jan. 16, 1919, many states adopted Prohibition a full year earlier.

See related story: Prohibition was boon, curse to county

Monroe County entered a colorful era in May, 1918.

One-hundred years ago, Prohibition made alcohol illegal, and it set off a period of lawlessness.

The county, because of its location, was hard-hit by Prohibition’s side effects: bootlegging, rum-running, violence, even murder.

While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was not ratified until Jan. 16, 1919, many states adopted Prohibition a full year earlier.

Here, it began May 1, 1918, several months after Michigan outlawed spirits.

Prohibition banned the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol. It remained in effect until 1933, when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment.

Those years of restrictions, especially 1918-19, were a trying period in this area.

The City of Monroe had 13 saloons in 1918, and all were closed immediately. Anyone caught with alcohol risked arrest.

Residents reacted to Prohibition with rebellion and violence and quickly came up with ways to get their spirits. Law-abiding citizens and prominent business people weren’t immune. Many made fortunes through illegal activity.

“Bootlegging was a way of life in Monroe,” said The News.

Neighboring cities and the Detroit River only fueled the problem.

Ohio didn’t enact Prohibition until 1919. Canada remained “wet,” so Monroe people had easy access to alcohol. Naturally, people chose to bootleg, or illegally smuggle, liquor into Monroe County.

In no time, a large rum-running operation ran between Windsor and Michigan and between Toledo and Monroe.

“It was Monroe County’s geography, more than anything, that made it a major point of entry for illicit Canadian liquor,” reported The News.

A loophole in the Ontario law allowed the export of liquor from Windsor to countries other than the U.S., said News files. Smugglers told patrol officers they were taking the liquor to Cuba or Mexico. Smugglers weren’t questioned when they returned just hours later.

Whiskey bought for $60 in Canada could bring $200 here. For those profits, many took the risk of gunfire.

The Detroit River offered an easy means of transportation. Smugglers brought Canadian liquor to Monroe County via boats, often late at night.

Fast, huge boats, 25 to 30 feet long, were used and came into Monroe through the marshy lands near Stony Creek and Bolles Harbor.

If police came by, rum-runners dropped their bounty into the water, returning later.

In the winter, the vessels became ice boats.

Back then, with less pollution, Lake Erie froze solid. Seven or eight men boarded boats and pushed them over the ice. Some even drove cars over the water. Car doors were removed for easy escape, should the vehicle sink.

By land, liquor was transported down Dixie Hwy. The roadway was nicknamed “Avenue de Booze.”

Carl Cousino of LaSalle, in a 1987 Monroe News story, said he was 6 when Prohibition began. He helped his dad haul paper bales filled with smuggled liquor from Detroit to Toledo.

Some carried liquor in hollowed-out eggshells.

“A list of bootleggers during Prohibition would include half the town,” Lawrence DuVall once told The News.

“Monroe was quite a place for the runners,” Clem Navarre, 93, said in 1986. “This was a mecca.”

Although some of liquor was passing through the county bound for other places, much was served in speakeasies in Rockwood, Newport and Estral Beach. Their locations were well-known among the locals.

“Nearly every adult resident was involved — runner, middleman, speakeasy operator or customer,” said The News in 1986.

But, smuggling wasn’t the only crime that ensued.

Rival rum-runners often tried to trap competitors. Gunfire between smugglers and between police and smugglers was common. Some were killed.

In June, 1918, the government sent 30 state troopers to help with the lawlessness, said News files.

By July, more than 600 had been charged with drinking, intoxication and transporting liquor. All were found guilty and got an average of 25 days in jail.

Court had to be held six days a week to deal with all the offenders. Confiscated liquor filled a jail cell.

By July 8, 1918, $10,000 in fines had been collected.

“It was a boon for the county’s libraries,” reported The News.

When the supply of alcohol became scarce, people found a new way: Make their own.

Beer, wine and moonshine flowed from homes. Much was poor quality.

“I believe every third house had a still,” Steve Petrovich once told The News.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union began. Members warned of the evils of alcohol. Still active today, the group now focuses on drug and alcohol abuse.

Smugglers got a break in February, 1919. That month, the Michigan Supreme Court said liquor violators could not be searched without warrants.

Police lost some authority. Prisoners were released and charged were dropped.

“By 9 p.m. on Feb. 19, 1919, 3½ hours after the court decision had been announced, the streets of Monroe were jammed with two lines of cars — one heading to Toledo, the other to Detroit,” said historian Larry D. Engel.

But that didn’t last long. Soon, a Monroe County circuit judge issued an injunction barring people from entering Michigan with liquor. The booze rush slowed.

When Ohio enacted Prohibition in May, 1919, the illegal trade halted even further.

By the early 1930s, there was talk of repealing the 18th Amendment.

Literary Digest conducted straw votes across the country. In most towns, including Monroe, residents overwhelmingly wanted to end Prohibition. In Monroe, supporters of repeal numbered 90 percent. Only two states were in favor of a continued ban on alcohol.

The Monroe County Women Favoring Prohibition tried to further their pro-Prohibition view. Gatherings took place across the county and included music, pastors and speakers.

Dr. Ira Landrith, a clergyman, educator and Prohibition speaker, came to Monroe as part of a 500-city tour.

A Southern, he wanted the dry South to convert the North because, to repeal Prohibition, ¾ of the states had to be in consensus.

Landrith was not successful.

In 1933, Congress passed the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition. The 18th Amendment remains the only U.S. amendment ever to be repealed.

Alcohol was legal again.

Local merchants stocked up on alcohol in anticipation for the first legal sales at 6 p.m. May 11, 1933.

Village of Temperance stands steadfast, honoring founders’ wishes

The Monroe County village of Temperance took Prohibition seriously.

“Temperance” means total abstinence from the use of alcoholic liquor.

Town founders Lewis and Marietta Ansted were ardently opposed to alcohol and wanted Temperance to remain dry forever.

“The name given to this village was not an accident,” said early Monroe Evening News files. “(The Ansteds want) to keep one spot on God’s green earth where their children and the children of future generations might be reared free from the curses of saloons or liquor sales.”

The couple’s property deed stated all 140 acres would be alcohol-free, even after their deaths. (Click for more about the "Temperance Clause")

But in 1933, as Prohibition was waning, Temperance party stores fought to bring liquor to Temperance. One owner, a widowed grandmother, eventually got the statute overturned.

But, it took many years.

Most in 1933 still upheld Prohibition, even though the rest of the nation was wet again. Churches, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the local government all reminded resident of the Ansteds’ wishes.

The push for alcohol was revived in 1935.

“The majority (of Prohibitionists) are dead and many descendants have moved. The people who came here recently have lost sight of the fact that this village was founded as a place of refuge from strong drink and its results,” admitted M.C. Kinney, Law and Order League president, as reported in a February, 1935, issue of The Detroit Free Press.

That same month, a merchant got a license to sell nontoxic beer. Soon, his offerings grew to include stronger brews. Finally, he got a license to sell real liquor.

Petitions circulated. An appeal was made to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission in Lansing. The prohibitionists won. After just one week, the license was revoked.

Alcohol wasn’t discussed again legally for 30 years.

On Nov. 3, 1964, Bedford Township voters approved liquor, but it could be consumed only at bars and only on property not owned by the Ansteds.

In September, 1973, Tolly’s Confectionary on Lewis Ave., owned by Ida Tolly, was issued a carryout liquor license, although her store was on Ansted property.

Tolly is credited with ending Temperance’s long run of Prohibition.

“Except for a brief period in 1935, no alcohol was sold legally in the unincorporated community until November, 1973, when beer and liquor became available at Tolly’s Confectionary,” reported The Evening News. “(The shop) will become the first downtown Temperance business to go ‘wet.’ (It will) end a 100-year tradition in this prohibition Bedford Township community.”

Some were outraged, including the Ansteds’ grandson, local churches and citizens, who circulated another petition.

In the end, she got to keep her license and operated the store until 1981, when she sold it. She died in 1988.

— Suzanne Nolan Wisler

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